How to Make Teams Work

In this much-cited research work done in Google, Project Aristotle’s researchers reviewed a half-century of academic studies looking at how teams worked. Were the best teams made up of people with similar interests? Or did it matter more whether everyone was motivated by the same kinds of rewards? Based on those studies, the researchers scrutinized the composition of groups inside Google: How often did teammates socialize outside the office? Did they have the same hobbies? Were their educational backgrounds similar? Was it better for all teammates to be outgoing or for all of them to be shy? They drew diagrams showing which teams had overlapping memberships and which groups had exceeded their departments’ goals. They studied how long teams stuck together and if gender balance seemed to have an impact on a team’s success.

Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs. In other words, Google’s data indicated that psychological safety, more than anything else, was critical to making a team work. Read more here

How to Collaborate Without Burning Out

Collaboration often results in more seamless client servicing and faster innovation. However, the downside is that this potentially results in lesser time for your individual work, personal reflection and sound decision making. An article dubbed this as “collaborative overload”.

In this article, the authors share some tips and ideas that you can adopt to collaborate without burning out. Some of these tips include:

1. Know why you accept collaborative work. For example: Does your ambition to be influential or recognized for your expertise cause you to attend meetings or discussions that don’t truly require your involvement? Do you pride yourself on being always ready to answer questions and pitch in on group work? Do you agree to take on collaborative activities because you’re worried about being labelled a poor performer or not a team player?

2. Efficient collaborators decide when they do, or don’t, have unique value to add to a meeting, discussion or a project

3. Stop seeing yourselves as dispensable and shift the source of your self-worth so that it comes from not just showcasing your own capabilities but also stepping away to let others develop theirs and gain visibility.

4. Restructure your role, schedule, and network to avoid the triggers you’ve identified and reduce or eliminate unnecessary collaboration

5. Reset colleagues’ expectations about the level and timeliness of your engagement

6. Block out time for reflective work and seek collaboration with those who can help you move toward your north star objectives.

How to Sustain Collaboration

What does it take to sustain collaboration? A psychological approach, apparently. The author of this article identified six training techniques that will enable both leaders and employees to work well together, learn from one another, and overcome the psychological barriers that get in the way of doing both. While the article has an emphasis on what leaders can do, there are nuggets of tips that you can immediately apply within your own working team:

1. Ask expansive questions: For instance, instead of saying to someone “Did you try asking others who’ve worked on similar projects for advice?” participants are coached to ask “In what ways have you reached out to others for advice?”

2. Look for the unspoken: For example, “I noticed your voice was somewhat tentative, as if you were feeling uncertain about your idea. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses you see in it?”

3. Observe three rules for feedback: Be straightforward in both how you address a person and what you say about him or her; identify the particular behaviour that worked (or didn’t); and describe the impact of the behaviour on you and others.